Messengers to the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Greensboro, N.C., June 13 approved a “revised” report of a Cooperative Program ad hoc committee.

Two of nine recommendations to strengthen the Cooperative Program, adopted at the Feb. 16 meeting of the Executive Committee in Canada, were revised June 12 by a vote of 35 to 27, prior to being presented to SBC messengers.

The amended report, which drew considerable discussion during the Tuesday morning session, removed a portion urging churches to “adopt a missional mindset as they contribute at least 10 percent” of their undesignated receipts through the Cooperative Program. Instead, the report now “commends” churches that are “giving sacrificially and proportionally a large percentage” of their undesignated receipts through the CP.

The amended report also encouraged each church to to give an increasing percentage of undesignated receipts through the Cooperative Program for five successive years, beginning in 2007.

A section of the report recommending the election of state and national convention officers from churches that give at least 10 percent of their undesignated receipts through the CP was likewise amended to read that officers are encouraged to “systematically and enthusiastically lead by example in giving sacrificially and proportionally.”

An attempt to restore the original wording of the ad hoc committee’s report failed on the floor of the convention after lengthy discussion.

Executive Committee officers said that the amendments were made after they had received feedback suggesting that many across the convention were perceiving the 10 percent recommendations as a mandate from convention leaders that infringed on the autonomy of the local church.

“We are all pro-Cooperative Program,” clarified Rob Zinn, chairman of the Executive Committee. “But we also are getting phone calls and we are trying to be sensitive to all of our churches, our messengers, our people and our pastors. We believe by putting a percentage there, it is being misconstrued and perceived that we are mandating what to give. We are simply encouraging all churches to give.”

Cooperative Program support emerged as a hot button issue in the SBC presidential election between Ronnie Floyd, pastor of First Baptist Church in Springdale, Ark., which gave 0.27 percent of its undesignated receipts of $11.95 million in 2005; Frank Page, pastor of First Baptist Church in Taylors, S.C., which gave 12.4 percent of its undesignated receipts of $4.29 million in 2005; and Jerry Sutton, pastor of Two Rivers Baptist Church in Nashville, Tenn., which designated a combined $183,482 to the state and national conventions for CP missions from its undesignated receipts of $4.1 million.

In 1984, the average portion of undesignated receipts given by churches through the Cooperative Program was 10.6 percent. In 2005, the average had declined to 6.66 percent.